


Value

by Ibenholt



Category: Babylon 5
Genre: M/M, OC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 13:02:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8891821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ibenholt/pseuds/Ibenholt
Summary: The setting was right. Nothing else seemed to be.





	

“Why don’t you marry me?” 

Sannel’s jewelry clattered when she turned her head. She wasn’t dressed to be in the garden. Her heels dug into the grass, and the hem of her dress gathered dewdrops. Then again, the ball was ending, and she hadn’t planned to come in until the servants started to clean up. When Master Darrvio had joined her one of the stone benches in the garden, she hadn’t worried about her state.

He was one of the newcomers. A rich middle-class man who had inherited a title. He was simply quiet enough not to attract attention from those who sneered at anyone who couldn’t trace their ancestry directly back to an emperor. Two years he had been there now, with his three wives and five delightful children. 

“I beg your pardon?” 

“Neither of us have very good chances out there, my dear,” The added endearment hurt a lot more than the information. He had been looking for a fourth wife among the women in court. 

“But I am not a snob, nor am I opposed to your heritage. You were the only one to speak to my wives when we arrived, and I hear you are wonderful with children.”

So that was the plan. He wasn’t going to touch her, but use her as a teacher and governess for his children. He and his wives certainly had no power over them. 

She was going to be sitting on plush sofas with food-stains on her dresses that would keep getting plainer each season. She would be brought out once a year to let the world know that Manka Darrivo was a kind-hearted man who had taken an halfbreed to be his wife. Oh, he would be at risk of being seen as pervert by some, just as her father had been forced to put up with page-long articles and common talk about his relationship with her dad. The illustrations had been the worst part. Papa drawn as a pathetic, wide-eyed vicitim of Narn-pheromones, while dad was a gruesome brutish figure covered in filth. 

How very Centauri. 

How likely she would be illustrated in the same pen, kneeling before her new husband as if he were a god. She had been saved, and would be a wife with all the comforts and security that brought with it.   
Other than that, she would remain hidden with the children, until they were of age and could come out into the living room. But where would that leave her? 

“You do not have to answer right away, of course.”

“I think I do.” She said. Her heels dug into the soil again as she got up.

“I am not interested, and I doubt I ever will be.” 

“Who are you saving yourself for?” The mocking tone did not annoy her as much as it should have. She was taller than he was, and looking down at him now, she saw a man past his prime, with dull features. 

“No one, perhaps. But if there is someone out there, I’d hate for them to miss an opportunity such as myself.”   
With that, she nodded her head and left.


End file.
